elmwoodmurdock

Using Wikis in Education!

"Imagine a school with children that can read and write, but teachers who
cannot, and you have a metaphor of the Information Age in which we live."
-Peter Cochrane

Jeff Ingraham
ESU#3
jingraham@esu3.org

http://elmwoodmurdock.pbwiki.com/
http://elmwoodmurdock.wikispaces.com/
http://elmwoodmurdock.wetpaint.com/

Comparing Wikis
http://learningweb2.wikispaces.com/Comparing+wiki+services

Why use ad-free wikis
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-flat-classroom-project-almost-died.html

How the Flat Classroom Project Almost Died Yesterday.pdf

What is a Wiki?
From a Hawaiian-language word for fast, "wiki" is a shortened form of "wiki wiki". A wiki is a website that allows anyone to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit and change available content, typically without the need for registration at the site.
This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for groupauthoring.
The page you are looking at right now is a wiki page that has been set to restrict who can, and can not, edit it's contents.
The best known example of a wiki is Wikipedia where everyone can edit the "encyclopedia".

Commoncraft Wikis

Commoncraft Wetpaint Wikis

Simultaneous Editing of wikis can be a problem –
When more than one user attempts to modify the page at the same time, one of the users changes
will be lost as one user saves over the work of another. While this issue may seem like an insurmountable obstacle to using wikis,
there are some strategies that you and your students can employ to address this issue:

1. Make small edits
2. Communicate with your partner(s)
3. Know how to use the history function of the Wiki
4. Before you edit, click refresh

WHY BOTHER?